Obama Administration Illegally Spied on Americans for Years

By Rachel Alexander, on June 2nd, 2017

Even after Edward Snowden revealed improper surveillance by the NSA, the practice continued and even increased.

Once top-secret documents reveal that the Obama administratipn routinely violated Americans’ privacy while conducting “overseas” surveillance over the past five years. John Solomon and Sara Carter at Circa obtained a ruling issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on April 26 denouncing the practice. The FISA court is the secret judicial body that oversees surveillance.

The court learned that the NSA was conducting large numbers of prohibited searches of databases. The administration did not disclose the surveillance until then. It had to do that to meet a court deadline for renewing surveillance authorities. The requirement is part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

More than 5 percent of the upstream searches violated data privacy safeguards.

The Circa expose found that more than 5 percent of the upstream searches violated data privacy safeguards. The Obama administration had said it would follow those safeguards in 2011. Instead, surveillance increased by 300 percent.